“Mom… Mom…. Mom… Mommy… Mommy,.. Mom…” I hear this coming from the room of my three-year-old daughter. It is bed time and her father and I have just gotten into bed. A pause comes and I think for just a second that possibly, the silence will last. It is shattered by.
“MOMMMMM,” Shriek, “MOM, can you hear me?”
Frustrated, I get out of bed and go to her room to see what is the problem. She wants her closet door shut. Really? Your closet door? You couldn’t get out of bed and go the whole 10 feet to your closet and shut the door and climb back into bed? I close the door.
Getting back into bed, I reach over and turn off my small night lamp on my bedside table. It is dark. I lean over to give my husband a kiss and as I roll back over to sleep on my side, my daughter is there- right in my face.
“Mommy, I am scared.” Now my three-year-old has inherited the gift of manipulation.
“Honey, there is nothing scary, go back to your room.”
“But I am scared.” See, one time, a year ago, she found out that if she said she was scared, we would come running to see what she was scared of. After a week, we quit doing this, but she still tries it nearly every night. We have tried a little of everything, new routines etc… but she still claims she is scared.
“What are you scared of?”
“I don’t know, I am just scared…”
Now I love my daughter and I really do cherish the moments that we have where I get to tuck her into bed and kiss her head, but when she continually comes out or screams or cries, I find myself getting frustrated. I also know that if I cater to her every whim and fancy, she will never end up growing up. She will be the 8-year-old with these issues still. I know, as most parents do, that if I coddle my child for too long, that they will never grow. I coddle them enough though ;-).
I was blessed to be able to go home for Thanksgiving. How fun! I have two sisters and an amazing set of parents. If I had to have my mom still tuck me in at night, there would be very little friendship that developed between her and I, it would be a needy relationship. I still call my mom and go to her for help and comfort, but I am able to give back to her now too, I am able to help her when she needs it also.
How many times are we in the same situation that we are in all the time and we cry out to God.
“God, God… Helloooo…. God, can you hear me?” “God I need you to come and fix this or that.” “God, I screwed up again, can you make this right?” “God, how or why did you let this happen?”
“Have you ever felt alone? Have you ever felt like God just can’t hear you? Have you felt like you have been ditched by someone who is always supposed to be there? Do we expect God to jump at your every whim and fancy? Maybe you are in a time of your life that you don’t feel God, you don’t hear God. You just don’t feel connected.
This is your chance. Just like my three-year-old needs to learn to not be scared at night, we need to learn in order to grow up too. Maybe, some of the times when we are calling God, it isn’t that he isn’t hearing us or doesn’t want to desperately swoop in and save the day, maybe it is a chance for us to grow. To learn to get through it on our own. He isn’t and will never be very far off, but maybe we step up and figure it out ourselves. When we start to grow up just a little, our relationship with him can change. It can change from the I need, I want to the let me serve you Lord, I will follow your ways.
If you are in a spot where you don’t hear God, if you feel left and alone, don’t fret- God is still there. He may be standing right outside your bedroom door waiting to see what you are going to do and how you are going to handle the situation. Don’t worry, He wont let you down. Maybe it is just you learning to grow in Him and He letting you do it. It is at this time that we need to seek out what he would want us to do. WWJD. Think about what God would want from you, go to the Bible, look it up. Friends, I promise you that those silent times aren’t times that God is saying “too bad”, He is saying “Now what are you going to do about it?”
You are one amazing writer! Thank you for sharing your study and the wisdom you get from it. I personally appreciate your blog and learn & grow from it all the time. You are a blessing.
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